A weird one, this. First start of the day.
Starter turns engine over - engine doesn't fire but stop lights start flickering (foot well clear of pedals). Wait 30 seconds, flickering stops. Retry starter and, usually, engine fires and no sign of stop lights flickering. Sometimes it takes more than one repeat of the cycle to get the engine to fire.
Stop light switch replaced but no change in problem.
Any ideas, anyone?
Skoda Octavia Ambiente, 1.6 FSi, 2005, 25k miles.
sounds like some weird earth fault
Have you tried the spare key to start it. It could be the chip in the key.
Search on briskoda.net or post there.
Perhaps the diagnostics output might tell you something - you'll need someone with a OBD-II scanner to access that.
VCDS would be best.
Thanks for the hints - the hope is always that you find someone who has had exactly the same problem.
I've had some pretty good support from Briskoda but, in the end, some progress has been made by a very old fashioned method. With something flickering ON that should be off, the only possible source I could think of was a malfunctioning relay. The Octavia II has two fuse/relay boxes, one inside the car and one under the bonnet, beside the battery. With the brake lights flickering, I gave the inside fuse box a modest slap and nothing happened. When I did the same to the engine-compartment fuse box, the brake lights stopped flickering and went out. I was then able to start the car.
The problem is getting worse and it occurs, not only when the engine is cold, first thing, but now, later in the day when the car has been standing for a few hours. A slap on the fuse box no longer does the trick but, while trying to pin down which component was at fault, I took off the fusebox lid and started tapping the three relays in turn
- of course, when the brake lights were flickering. The last one I tapped, labelled R4, was the one which was 'microphonic'. After a day or two, tapping it wasn't enough and I had to waggle it. Of course, I took out the relay and cleaned up the contacts but I was beginning to think it might not be the relay but a crack in a copper track in the fuse board.
This morning, armed with a new relay, I've done the experiment. I had to drive some way to fetch the part, the car had really warmed up, and there is no brake light problem with either relay seem OK. This tends to support the idea that it is a problem with the fuse board with a crack 'healing' when it is hot. At present the new relay is in place and I am waiting for the car to cool to see if I still get the flickering.
Fingers crossed but I suspect it will be over a hundred quid for a new fuse board and the cost of installing it as I'm nervous about doing anything too major to the electrics for fear of upsetting the ECU.
Incidentally, I got someone to check the fault codes - they got a whole stack of codes, none of them clearly indicating where to look. Thinking and intuition have produced more easily interpretable results!
I'm reporting the current state in full in case someone else might one day get the benefit. I'll report back on any further developments.
Now that I've solved the problem, I've found (by a well known law) a
2009 reference to the same thing in a VW Golf 2.0!!See:
Thanks for the feedback.
Chris
Skoda octiva started problem
Don't necropost.
I have 2016 octavia Skoda suddenly it stoped working with no ignition no creaks and problems with the dashboard lights and windows are not closing simply everything is not functioning
?A power? A power outage? Aha! Okay, we?ve got it licked now. Do you still have the boxes and manuals and packing stuff your %s/computer/car came in??
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.